John Gottlieb Morris

John Gottlieb Morris (November 14, 1803 - October 10, 1895) was a Lutheran minister who played an influential role in the evolution of the Lutheran church in America. He was also an early American entomologist and one of the first to specialize in the study of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths).

Morris was born on November 14, 1803 in York, Pennsylvania. He was the youngest of nine children born to John Samuel Gottlieb Morris and Barbara Myers Morris. His father had emigrated from Germany in 1776 to fight in the American Revolution. His mother was from Baltimore County, Maryland. After the war, the senior Morris settled in York, married Barbara Myers and became a successful physician. Both parents were devout members of the Lutheran Church. Morris was baptized on January 8, 1804 in York's Christ Lutheran Church.

When Morris was five, his father died, leaving a substantial fortune to his wife and children. Morris' oldest brother, Charles, stepped in and became the boy's guardian. Morris studied first at York Academy, attended Princeton and then graduated from Dickinson College in 1823. He demonstrated a strong aptitude for language and became fluent in German, Greek, Latin, French, and Hebrew.

After graduation at the age of twenty, Morris decided to become a Lutheran minister. For two years he studied with Samuel Simon Schmucker,an influential but controversial Lutheran religious leader. He then studied at the Presbyterian Princeton Theological Seminary before finishing his training in 1826 at the new Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. In October 1827, Morris was ordained in the Lutheran ministry and began serving as pastor of the First English Lutheran Church in Baltimore. Shortly after settling in Baltimore, Morris married Eliza Hay, member of a prominent New York family. They went on to have ten children, of whom four daughters survived to adulthood.

When Morris joined the clergy, Lutheranism faced an internal struggle between liberals who sought to align with mainstream American Protestantism and conservative German immigrants who wished to maintain their traditions and language. As pastor of First English for more than thirty years, Morris was a leading proponent of progressive, English-speaking Lutheranism in Baltimore. He also participated in inter-denominational efforts and became president of the Baltimore Ministerial Association. When he left his parish in 1860, he continued to serve on a part-time basis at St. Mark's and Third English, both in Baltimore. Morris was also active on state and national levels, serving seven times as president of the Maryland Synod and twice as president of the General Synod.

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